PernixData FVP Management Server Service not running

I had successfully installed and tested PernixData’s FVP 2.5 in my home lab on a 3 host VMware vSphere 5.5 cluster. With my initial configuration I connected the PernixData Management Server to an external SQL server running on my VMware View Composer VM.  I decided that I wanted to start over and install the Management Server and SQL Server Express 2012 on the same Windows 2008 R2 Server (recommended configuration).

I spun up a new Windows Server 2008 R2 VM from my template, installed SQL Server Express 2012 and then proceeded to install the PernixData FVP Management Server. After both were installed without any errors during the install, I opened the vSphere Client and the Plugin was not installed or available.  I went back to the Management Server and opened the Services and noticed that the “PernixData FVP Management” service was not running.  I started it and the status changed to running.

After a few minuted I noticed that the service shut down and was not running.  I proceeded to the prnxms file to see what it said.  The default path location is C:\Program Files\PernixData\FVP Management Server\Server\log\

After looking at the log file the service successfully starts and after 120 seconds of not being able to connect to the DB, it shuts the service down. The log file states “Make sure user/password is correct, TCP/IP protocol is enabled for SQL Server instance and SQL Browser service is running.”

I knew my username/password was correct so I opened the SQL Server Configuration Manager and noticed I forgot to Enable TCP/IP.

I enabled TCP/IP and then restarted the SQL service and started the PernixData FVP Management service. I opened the pernixms log file and the management server connected successfully to the SQL DB. It was nice to see PernixData actually give you good feedback that is usable in their log file.